Ward Forester: collaboration brings opportunities

摘要

Ward Forester is a project first piloted in 2010 as a new way of creating collaborative groups of woodland owners to bring more of Devon's estimated 60 % of neglected woodland back into management.The original idea differed from other collaborative schemes in two important respects. Firstly, we recognized that the owners of most neglected woodlands are generally busy people who are unable to commit to long-term investment of time into the more traditional form of collaborative working model. Secondly, that 'woodland advisors' could be sourced from the various forestry consultants already working within the area. What was necessary was co-ordination, and so Ward Forester began the work of brokering the placement of professional foresters with 'wards' (groups) of woodland owners.